The fish tank thread.

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Woo Hoo!!

Today was fill the tank with water day!! This is my youngest checking for leaks around the bulkheads.


The driftwood has been out of water for 6 months so it is not water logged enough to sink. I think I'll get some cheap pavers from Menard's tomorrow to weigh them down.
Also experimenting with some new LED lighting. Getting much closer to being finished!! Will probably transfer the Tiger Barbs from the 45 to the 300 on Friday and hit the fish stores Saturday for more Tiger Barbs to get the cycling started.


That tank with the Oscars brings back memories of ours. Smartest fish I have ever kept. We had a Red Tiger and White Tiger (some call them albino but they really aren't) in this 300. It was awesome to for them to have so much room to roam. My kids named them Zoey and Grovie. They were about 6 years old when Zoey developed some intestinal problems. Her belly swelled and actually ruptured. Grovie NEVER left her side until the very end. Shoot even before that they were almost inseparable. After she died Grovie moped and just was not the same fish as he was when she was alive. About a month after her death we found him dead in the tank with no signs of anything wrong. My wife says he died of a broken heart. I know it's just a fish but I think she is right, if you have ever had Oscars you would definitely understand.

Is that a Banded Shovelnose Catfish in that 75 with those Oscars? If so that sucker is going to get HUGE. Do you have a larger tank in the works?

nice!! you are so lucky to have such a nice tank...i wish my parents would let me buy a tank that big. they stopped at a 55 gallon lol
sad story about the oscar...would they be happy alone or should they be kept in pairs?

What are you planning on putting in the tank??

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

The driftwood has been out of water for 6 months so it is not water logged enough to sink. I think I'll get some cheap pavers from Menard's tomorrow to weigh them down.
Also experimenting with some new LED lighting. Getting much closer to being finished!! Will probably transfer the Tiger Barbs from the 45 to the 300 on Friday and hit the fish stores Saturday for more Tiger Barbs to get the cycling started.

Gotta love the bobbing wood stage! I was just doing some maintenance last night and found that the largest wood pieces have finally water-logged enough to stay down on their own - I collected and cured some really nice pieces along the river during our last round of remodeling on tanks and it took forever to get them all to the point that I no longer had to use strategic rock placement or wedging to keep things in place. They've probably been okay for a bit, but I hadn't mucked around with things too much lately - happened to bump one of the rocks out of place last night and darned if the wood just sat there vs. trying to bob up to the top, tearing everything else out of place along the way.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Got a surprise during last night's cleaning/fill of the 125 --


That is a baby bristle nose - the surprising part of finding this little guy is that our breeding community is actually in DD's 75, there's a couple of "spill overs" in my tank because she wanted to keep them for breeding vs. putting them in with the ones that were sold off from the last few breedings, but the population of my tank is not really spawning friendly so fry of any species that have happened in there are quickly consumed if not discovered and removed. I've never seen baby plecos in there before, apparently this little guy has managed to stay one step ahead of all the big fish. Moved him over to the grow out tank and he'll be going to the shop as soon as he's reached the right size.

 

[Happy Dad]

nice!! you are so lucky to have such a nice tank...i wish my parents would let me buy a tank that big. they stopped at a 55 gallon lol
sad story about the oscar...would they be happy alone or should they be kept in pairs?

What are you planning on putting in the tank??

Thanks! Not lucky but VERY thankful (Hard work, dedication and being faithful pays kid!)

I had a single Oscar in a 55 gallon in my first house that was 9 years old when he died. After seeing the pair we had in the 300 I would never have just one and I would also never have a pair in less than a 6 to 8 foot long tank, it's just so awesome when they have room to actually swim and explore together.

We still have "Gary" our Dragon Puffer Fish (a.k.a. King Kong Puffer Fish) who is this big tub of goo fish who just hangs out in his cave and eats frozen fish, frozen raw in shell shrimp, crawdads and other edible items that I push with a stick into his cave. He is the only fish we kept from our 300 when we moved and he has been living in the 45 since. We love the big slug. While in the 45 we have occasionally (usually spur of the moment) bought fish to hopefully grow out in preparation for the return on the 300. Each time I say to myself, "Gary won't eat these." So far in the 45 (since it small in relative terms) "Gary" has eaten: 2 Pictus Catfish, 2 Dwarf Groumis, 6 Tiger Barbs, 3 Bumble Bee Catfish, 6 Platys and a Swordfish who hitched a ride home in one our bags (sucks to be him).

Our latest purchase (12 Tiger Barbs) has proven most successful as 6 have survived for over a month without becoming a Gary snacks. I love those quick little buggers.

So for the 300 I plan on Gary and the remaining Tiger Barbs. Besides Gary I'm done with fish like Oscars that you get emotionally attached to. I have 300 gallons in the tank and 200 gallons in the sump in the filter room so I can handle a lot of bio-load with 500 total gallons and a nice wet/dry filter tower. I will slowly build fish stock while cycling. I want a school of about 20-30 Tiger Barbs, dozens of Live-bearers (Mollys, Plays, Swordfish & etc.), half dozen or so Dwarf Guarmis, half dozen or so Angel Fish, half dozen or so Silver Dollar Fish, 3 Pictus Cats, small school of Bumble Bee cats (12+). Also want to plan a trip to some specialty fish stores (meaning not Petsmart or Petco) and see what floats my boat. There will plenty of different areas for them to stay away from Gary although you never know when somebody may get lost.)

I feel like a kid getting this thing going again, lol

 

[Happy Dad]

Gotta love the bobbing wood stage! I was just doing some maintenance last night and found that the largest wood pieces have finally water-logged enough to stay down on their own - I collected and cured some really nice pieces along the river during our last round of remodeling on tanks and it took forever to get them all to the point that I no longer had to use strategic rock placement or wedging to keep things in place. They've probably been okay for a bit, but I hadn't mucked around with things too much lately - happened to bump one of the rocks out of place last night and darned if the wood just sat there vs. trying to bob up to the top, tearing everything else out of place along the way.

Cheers to that! I can't wait to say the same

 

[waddles99]

Your stock sounds cool but is there any reason you are avoiding larger fish? I'd think that a tank with some large cichlids and catfish would be really cool!

 

[Happy Dad]

Quote:
I've done larger fish before and am just looking for something new. I also couldn't have plants in the tank before with the larger fish. The Oscars and Severums slowly destroyed all of them untill I only had driftwood left. I want lots of plants and lots of fish with lots of room to swim.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Quote:
A huge, planted tank with a lively community of multiple smaller fish is something to behold!

 

[waddles99]

Ive tried a planted aquarium before, it wasn't worth the trouble IMO. But to each his own

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Ive tried a planted aquarium before, it wasn't worth the trouble IMO. But to each his own

Depends on how into one wants to go - you can do a low light/low maintenance planted tank easily with no extra work or trouble at all - it's only when you start delving into the higher light/nutrient needy plants that it becomes a hassle with having to add light, add CO2, etc. Our two planted tanks require no different care than the two non-planted because I have low light plants that don't require CO2 injection and all that jazz.